![tyler the creator flower boy merch tyler the creator flower boy merch](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/IcEAAOSwuQJg052F/s-l500.jpg)
Tyler’s flow is too quick for the chilled out pace of this tune, once again giving it that bouncing off the walls pacing. Sadly, the song titled Glitter isn’t the synth driven queer banger that a song of such a title should be, much to my disappointment. But if you’ve ever seen an interview with the animated Tyler, it will make slightly more sense as to why the sounds are all over the place. The ebb and flow between tracks like Boredom and I Ain’t Got Time isn’t naturally progressive, and the stop start nature give the record a chaotic sound that isn’t quite fully rounded or thought through. The “still hungry” Tyler references his Wolf record loosely, indicating that he is perfectly aware of how he got his start in life and won’t be straying too far from his unique style. Who Dat Boy and Pothole are throwbacks to Goblin era Tyler angst, as he waxes lyrical about being stuck in traffic when all he wants to do is get away from the world. The fierce flow is still there, but tracks such as Sometimes and See You Again have a warmth that strips back the bravado and the brashness in exchange for a more wholesome image. Whereas his previous three records have been aggressive in their image, delivery and names Flower Boy is a welcome to the softer side of Tyler The Creator. We may never have the answers, and to be honest as long as Tyler continues to educate himself and be less homophobic – there will be winners on every level of the hip-hop scene whether that be for fans or other musicians themselves. This newly found ‘wokeness’ is all the more pertinent with recent rumours surrounding Tyler’s sexuality hitting the headlines, as fans speculate that perhaps his previously vocal homophobia was an attempt to distract from his queerness. Asking the question “how many riots can there be until black lives matter” whilst also name-checking the KKK and corrupt police forces, Tyler proves there is a socially conscious head on his shoulders. The political heartbeat sees Tyler taking a concerned walk through the world he lives in. Tyler has always been forthcoming with his language choices favouring those of the four-letter variety almost exclusively, but on the opening Foreword, it seems with time has come a lyrical maturity that we all believed him capable of.
![tyler the creator flower boy merch tyler the creator flower boy merch](https://i.etsystatic.com/26054115/c/1440/1144/0/344/il/e1a5f4/3307857494/il_340x270.3307857494_isba.jpg)
Nevertheless, I approached Flower Boy with as open a mind as possible, and found that perhaps Tyler has matured into a less problematic individual. The first half of the album floats past in an almost dreamlike fashion, before ‘Boredom’ returns Flower Boy to a more traditional structure for the album’s revelatory second half, allowing Tyler to spit in a clearer and more confessional style.įlower Boy paints a picture of a man sitting alone in his mansion, surrounded by everything he ever wanted, but longing a lover that doesn’t reciprocate his feelings, and an end to his isolation.As a queer person, even the name Tyler The Creator induces wince of discomfort, for this is a man who was famously banned from fulfilling touring commitments in the UK as a result of the homophobic rhetoric he notoriously spouted on past releases.
![tyler the creator flower boy merch tyler the creator flower boy merch](https://thefader-res.cloudinary.com/private_images/w_640,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:eco/GettyImages-911512370_kd20yl/tyler-the-creator-flower-boy-merch.jpg)
This general sense of isolation and dissatisfaction is backed up the beats on Flower Boy, which are consistently spacey and unfocused. Its Tyler being as real as he can be, and it makes for an infinitely more interesting listen then any of the button-pushing punchlines from Goblin. The brash, attention seeking Tyler only makes a couple of appearances, on ‘Who Dat Boy?’ and ‘I Aint Got Time’, but he tears apart his own brags with lines like “I say the loudest in the room is prolly the loneliest in the room”, later on the album. From his friend’s intentions since he became famous on ‘Pothole’, to his sexuality on ‘Garden Shed’, Tyler unravels it all, dropping the bravado that made him both famous and infamous. On Flower Boy, he paints a picture of a man who has everything he’s ever wanted, but ends up questioning everything he has. To embittered bloggers (like us), he’s a California rapper who’s released middling projects since Bastard, and who has failed to creatively keep up with his Odd Future contemporaries since the group split.Īccording to Tyler himself, he’s the self-confessed “loneliest man alive”. To others, he’s a godlike figure, an embodiment of years of pent-up outcast rage exploding brightly into a hyperconfident king of the weirdos. Who is Tyler, The Creator? According to some, he’s a hatemongering menace who must be stopped at all costs.